Author Topic: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)  (Read 1557 times)

Offline Nick Fernandez

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New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« on: June 27, 2012, 07:06:30 PM »
I just finished reading the Starting Strength e-book and I'm trying to get familiar with the lifts. Like I said, I'm new to lifting and I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Was hoping you guys could help me out if I post vids of my form on all the SS lifts (besides power clean, I won't be doing that because of equipment and space issues).

Right now I only have a video of my squats so I'll post that here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PvWp9nXAJ4

I noticed my back rounds a bit right when I hit the bottom, although I haven't really been able to fix that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

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Offline Joe Brock

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2012, 09:04:24 PM »
The back rounding that you're seeing at the bottom is pelvic tilt.  Since you're squatting with a semi high-bar position, your knees are tracking forward.  Your elbows don't drive underneath the bar at the bottom position, and this puts your center of gravity too far towards your toes.  I noticed you trying to fight that by pushing your neck back into the bar, which means you're not focused on a point about 6' in front of your toes.

By dropping the bar position lower on your back, exaggerating the "chest out" posture, and driving up from your heels...you should see some improvement. 

This isn't a bad squat, though.  Part of it is that you've just started lifting.  You're not being challenged enough by the #95 on the bar to see any MAJOR form breakdown.  When the weight gets heavier, you'll be much more able to see the little issues.

Do you have a spotter or way to catch the bar when things go wrong?
Posts are not to be mistaken for medical or training advice, or anything other than the rantings of an amateur strongman, coach, and powerlifter. http://strongmanning.blogspot.com/

Offline Nick Fernandez

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2012, 09:25:54 PM »
Sadly I wasn't able to afford a cage, so I'm just using the bench. The only person in my house capable of spotting would be my dad, and I know that a one-man spot is just pointless. Which is why I'm very cautious not to up the weight too soon.

I'll fix the bar position for sure. All I could think about during the set was trying to lower the bar down and tightening my back because it was killing my neck. Definitely not doing that again.

What do you mean about driving the elbows underneath the bar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid." -Daniel Ilabaca

Offline Joe Brock

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2012, 10:10:02 PM »
A one-man spot is not "useless."  It's not the best answer, but it's better than nothing.

What I mean about "driving the elbows," is that in the bottom position of the squat, as the torso tilts forward, the elbows should move down more under the bar.  If they flare out behind you like a set of wings, then you're far more likely to allow the chest to collapse down/forward.
Posts are not to be mistaken for medical or training advice, or anything other than the rantings of an amateur strongman, coach, and powerlifter. http://strongmanning.blogspot.com/

Offline Scott Eustice

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2012, 04:50:11 PM »
Joe, could list the form differences between the high bar back squat and the low bar back squat? I'm doing the high bar because it carries over better to running (according to coach), but I don't know of any significant form differences, besides the bar placement.

Offline Joe Brock

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2012, 08:48:50 PM »
Most of the changes are relative to the difference in bar position.  When you change something a few inches in a multi-joint lift, a great many other things change due to the weight placement over the center of the foot.  For me to cover all of the changes would take a very long and detailed examination of the skeletal muscles, angles, basic physics...it's just too much if you don't have illustrations.  The important part is that they're based on how gravity and the body must work together.

Either way is fine, as long as they're done correctly.
Posts are not to be mistaken for medical or training advice, or anything other than the rantings of an amateur strongman, coach, and powerlifter. http://strongmanning.blogspot.com/

Offline Josh Vernier

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2012, 10:33:42 PM »
Here are the main two issues I saw (piggybacking Joe's responses) - when you drop into the squat, your knees shoot forward and you drop your hips straight down. The motion should start with the hips. You want to try to push your hips back first and then down (if I had a picture ready, it would make this so much easier to describe...). Try to keep your knees from passing in front of your toes. Also, since I can't see your feet in the video, do your heels come off the ground?

This is the best video my lazy ass could find. Watch his hips as he starts the squat.
#Invalid YouTube Link#

Offline Mr.WWII

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2012, 08:04:04 PM »
you may be able to get your hips back a lil more, but since you're doing high bar the knees will go more forward than in low bar, so from the angle you got it doesn't look so bad to me. Definitely a lil back rounding at the bottom but it's not horrible. Could be for a number of reasons, imbalance/flexibility/weakness in core or hips etc. Aside from trying low bar, I have always had great success with clients by putting something at the correct height behind them to either sit down on or just touch when first learning. This helps for a few reasons: 1. it's a safety net when experimenting with pushing the hips back, where in case they push back too far, they can just sit down instead of falling on their ass and dropping the weight, I find it allows for people to get more comfortable with sitting back more. 2. I have found that for clients struggling with keeping their back straight, it helps for them to completely sit down at  the bottom of the squat, and then before standing back up readjusting their back by arching as hard as they can before standing back up, often times they can get a better back position on the way up then they did on the way down. This allows them to really fight for the straight back position and get some good dynamic and squat-specific stretching in. From this they progress to putting less pressure on the box (instead of totally sitting down) until they can just simply touch the box with their butt and not sit down. At that point ya just get rid of the box and the back position is usually better. 3. Lastly, for some it just helps as a reference point so they have the same depth each time, and in this case they would also only be touching the box, not sitting.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to recommend that beginners do box squats as opposed to regular squats. I'm just saying a box can be used as a learning tool, and with light weight I should add. The goal is to get off the box as soon as possible and never to have reliance on it

Offline Nick Fernandez

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2012, 05:54:50 PM »
Hey guys, I've been busy with some other things recently but I just got back to the SS routine again.

I've worked on my squat a lot and it's improved a lot, but I still notice a slight lower back rounding on most of the squats:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L7Y-OGW_9I" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L7Y-OGW_9I</a>

Also, here's my press:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqSx_aiys70" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqSx_aiys70</a>

Thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid." -Daniel Ilabaca

Offline Scott Eustice

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2012, 07:14:55 PM »
The squat does still have the rounding at the bottom, it could be your hip mobility. How tight are your hamstrings and hip flexors? they could be limiting your range of motion. It could be the "buttwink" if the weight isn't challenging enough yet, but I'm not entirely sure. Your chest fell on the later reps, really try and keep the chest up. Otherwise you seemed pretty good.

For the press, your lower back is rounding a bit too much and you are shifting into some anterior pelvic tilt. Try and really engage all of your legs and "core" to maintain a strong back and support your press. It looks like your elbows might be coming out a bit too much, try and keep those in tight. Keep at it, it will all be worth it when you realize how far you have come.

Offline Nick Fernandez

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2012, 08:29:21 PM »
If anything, my hip flexors are slightly less flexible than the rest of my body, but I doubt it's enough to be a flexibility issue. I realized only recently I wasn't focusing on shoving my knees out though, so I'm guessing I still need to do that a bit more to fix it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid." -Daniel Ilabaca

Offline Nick Fernandez

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2012, 12:37:56 PM »
Improved the squat.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZoG15VjzYc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZoG15VjzYc</a>

I really need help with the deadlift form, though. It's horrendous. It feels like I'm in a really awkward position when I try to arch/straighten my back but keep the bar in reach at the same time.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6taT_Yl3X-w" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6taT_Yl3X-w</a>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid." -Daniel Ilabaca

Offline Mr.WWII

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2012, 02:54:56 PM »
squats looking pretty decent, the back COULD be better still but it's not that bad, just keep working on it. Also looks like you're over emphasizing the hip drive, your hips are rising too high while your chest stays down. Think of hip drive as lifting your ass up off a chair when you stand up as opposed to just straightening out your knees.

For deadlift, you simply don't have a proper hip hinging pattern. I would stand sideways to a mirror and practice bending from the waist,  while pushing your hips back and keeping an arched back, with slightly bent knees. A lot of people simply don't know how to properly hinge from the hip. Here's a few vids that might help too and give you an idea of what im talking about (Also, deadlift barefoot if u aren't already, it'll help get your hips back more)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=34saz57cxjs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKEz4J8KpXU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT838Ha2xmA

Offline Scott Eustice

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2012, 03:19:51 PM »
Nick - What he said.

WWII - How much knee bend is acceptable in a hip hinge movement? My knees bend somewhere in between the woman in the first video when she sticks her butt back vs going down.

That sounded more inappropriate than I intended.

Offline Mr.WWII

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2012, 03:29:03 PM »

WWII - How much knee bend is acceptable in a hip hinge movement? My knees bend somewhere in between the woman in the first video when she sticks her butt back vs going down.


How straight you keep your legs vs. how low you bend down is dependent on hamstring flexibility mostly, but you can practice hip hinging at varying degrees of knee bending. I think it's best to practice at 1st and learn how with very minimal knee bending, since the stretch in the hamstring is evidence of doing it right, but it should also be practice at greater degrees of knee bending in order to translate the idea better to DLs and squats

Offline Nick Fernandez

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Re: New to lifting, need help with form (with videos)
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2012, 06:52:23 PM »
Deadlifts are looking a lot better. The bar path was a little more sloppy on this set and I don't think I returned to the same position after the first rep, but they definitely feel a lot easier to do after figuring out the "hip hinge", thanks Mr. WWII. They also feel a lot more natural and require less conscious thought on form compared to the squat, even though I used light weight.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmJZVAo7O0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmJZVAo7O0</a>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbx-yzFgBo

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid." -Daniel Ilabaca